Daddy daughter moments
by Beautiful-Chaos-Girl
Summary: Little stories capturing small daddy daughter moments from various middle earth families. Pure fluff. Featuring some OC's (non canon daughters).
1. Chapter 1

Elrond sneaked into Arwen's nursery, checking that his wife was not watching. Celebrian had insisted that she put to bed, because she had been awake all day and would get tired and cranky if she didn't sleep soon. Elrond had just got back from a particularly gruelling defence excursion and was looking forward to seeing his baby girl. He loved all his children, but he quite enjoyed them when they were babes. He just couldn't resist checking to see if she was awake. He crept quietly into the room and leaned over the crib. Two round beads of turquoise looked up at him. His daughter was awake still.

"Mára aurë, my baby. Hello..."

She wiggled a little, one side of her face crooking into a flash of a smile. He rewarded that with a big smile and shining eyes.

"Hello, my darling. Aren't you precious? Yes, you are" Elrond cooed amiably

Arwen's smile flickered again as she thrashed her arms and kicked her tiny legs.

"Shall we play a game, sweetheart? Would you like that?"

Arwen chuckled her high baby chuckle.

Elrond grinned back down at her. He moved with exaggerated emphasis, placing his hands over his eyes "where's my tithen pen? Where is she?" he threw his hands back and opened his eyes wide, pretending to see Arwen for the first time. "Aww, there she is!" he cried gleefully. Arwen thumped her pint-sized feet against her mattress, giggling in amusement. Elrond continued this little charade for a while longer and each time he was met with a look of delighted surprise. Elrond's smile was almost too big for his face and his heart was soaring. He had been through many trials and tribulations but here, with his baby girl, he was at peace.

Celebrian leaned against the door jamb, silently watching her husband and child. She had come up here with the intention of chastising him for keeping Arwen awake. But when she beheld this scene she had not the heart to stop it. She slipped quietly away, leaving father and daughter to revel in one another


	2. Chapter 2

He was sitting in the communal area, flicking through some historical writings by the fading firelight. The boys were out on the target range, practising their mounted shooting. Arwen had begged to go with them and watch even though Elrond had assured her she would be bored. The patter of leather moccasins against stone made him look up. There she was, his little girl, skipping up the stairs to join him. Her blue silken dress shone faintly in the wane moonlight, giving her a sort of cerulean glow. The front of her ebony hair was pulled back from her face in four tiny plaits fixed to her head by jewelled clasps. The rest flowed free down her back in the style her mother liked best.

"Mae govanenn, Melamin. Oio naa elealla alasse'. (Well met, my love. Ever is thy sight a joy)" Elrond greeted her, setting his work aside momentarily "I thought you were watching the target practise"

She shrugged "it got boring"

Elrond smiled to himself and swallowed his "I told you so"

"So I came up here to sit with you. May I, Ada?"

"Of course melamin. So long as you are quiet"

Arwen nodded and sat down beside him. She took a scrap of unused paper and one of Elrond's wrapped charcoal stick and was soon contentedly drawing. This relative peace went on for some time, interrupted only by the slight scratching of charcoal, or the crinkling of aged paper. It was broken some time later when another set of feet sounded on the stairs. The two looked up to see one of Elrond's minstrels, carrying his flute. He gave them both a deep sweeping bow.

"Vedui' heruamin. (Greetings my lord.) I did not mean to interrupt you. But, now that I am here, may I play for you and the little lady?"

Elrond was going to politely refuse when he saw the look on his daughter's face.

"Oh yes! Can he Ada? Can we dance, Ada? Please? " she begged, turning to him with soulful eyes.

Elrond hesitated for a moment, looking from the minstrel's face, to his daughter's and back again.

"Ohh, alright"

With a squeal of happiness Arwen set her drawings aside and leapt to her feet. Elrond rose and took her hands.

The minstrel took a seat and struck up his song, a merry melody of rivers and woods, sunsets and rainbows.

Elrond guided Arwen to stand on his feet and place her hand at his waist. He began to step and sway to the song, spinning and turning. Arwen pressed herself into him, looking up at him and beaming. He smiled back down at her. She stepped off his feet and he twirled her around. She gave a musical little giggle. He even dipped her for a short moment before she complained excitedly that she had a head rush. The music gradually dwindled away and he drew back, bowing politely while she gave him a well-practised curtsy. Before he'd quite straightened up he found she'd lurched into him and thrown her arms around him.

"Diola lle, Ada! That was wonderful!"

Elrond looked up in embarrassment at the minstrel but he had respectfully left them alone.

"You're welcome my shining star. It was wonderful for me too"


	3. Chapter 3

"Don't go too far Eleniel!" Aragorn called as his little girl dashed ahead. "Your mother would kill me if I lost you" he added to himself.

"Ok Ada!" Eleniel shouted back, waving cheerfully at him.

Aragorn returned and continued his walk. It was good to get out after so many days cooped up inside. It was brief period of sunshine in what had so far been a month of rain. Aragorn was fairly certain this fine weather would be short lived. Sure enough a few moments later, light droplets of rain began to fall. It was not a huge shower but it was fast and the ground was soon slick with water.

"Eleniel! Come back! We better head home" Aragorn called out above the rain.

Eleniel turned to rush back to him but she ran into a puddle and slid, flailing and swaying before her feet went up and her butt went down. She landed with a muddy splash and a cry of upset shock. She promptly burst into tears.

"Hold on baby, I'm coming to get you!" Aragorn exclaimed. He ran to get her but missed a puddle of his own. He shot forward on the muddy grass with a yelp of surprise. He landed much the same way his daughter did. Her tears morphed into shock and then into delight. She broke into a snicker, a chuckle, a giggle, a guffaw. It was a good thing Aragorn was not overly sensitive and had a good sense of humour.

"You think that's funny do you? Huh? Is that funny?" Aragorn asked with mock menace. He clawed his fingers as if to grab her. Eleniel grinned cheekily and nodded. Aragorn pitched forward and bore down upon her, tickling her furiously. Eleniel shrieked with laughter and writhed around in the mud, getting absolutely filthy. Soon they were both rolling around and shrieking with laughter. After that, just for good measure they jumped together in the muddiest puddles they could find as they walked home. They trooped back to palace until they were stopped at the entrance way by a horrified Arwen. They could tell by the look on her face that they looked a sight. Coated in mud, saturated in water and grass in their hair and staining their faces. Arwen was legitimately flabbergasted.

"How… how… how did you get so dirty? It was only raining for a few minutes!"

Aragorn looked down bashfully. "We got a bit… ah, carried away"

Arwen shook her head despairingly. She went to the bell and pulled it "please see that two baths are run and new clothes are laid out for the king and the princess" She called to some servant unseen.

"Stay out here. I'm going to lay some towels on the floor" with that she closed the door. The only one who could possibly ban the King from entering his own palace is the Queen. Especially if she was a queen like Arwen. So they sat outside on the patio and waited while the bath water ran.


	4. Chapter 4

Aragorn was just sitting in his room, polishing his sword, idling away a few free moments, when he heard it.

Mutter, mutter, mutter - *Thud!*

Mumble, mumble, mumble - *Thud!*

He furrowed his brow in confusion. What was this curious noise, and where was it coming from? He set his sword, rag and oil down and set off in search of the sounds. He traced it through the palace all the way to the twins' bedroom. He pushed the door open, having to exert more pressure than usual to find a floor scattered with toys and trinkets of all kinds. The path of the door was swept clear, yet more toys now crushed against the wall. And, in the centre of this chaos, sat his two dear twins, Berúthiel and Gilraen. One at a time they leant into their toy chest, pulled something out, regarded it for a moment before declaring "Boring" and tossing it aside to add to the ever growing mountain of toys. Aragorn watched dumbfounded as they continued, their toy chest seemingly bottomless, and declared each and every one of their immensely expensive, hand crafted, toys "boring".

Until now he had never realised just how MANY toys his girls had. Had he been spoiling them?  
"Girls. What are you doing?"  
They whirled around in that disquieting synchrony they had sometimes. "Looking for something to play with" Gilraen told him, tugging on a ringlet as golden as her names sake. It was the only way to tell them apart sometimes. Berúthiel had inherited her mother's raven hair whilst Gilraen had hair like her paternal grandmother, usually fair and bright.  
"You have plenty to play with" Aragorn told them, wading through the piles on the floor "What I meant was why are you casting out perfectly good playthings all over your bedroom floor"  
"We have played with all of these before Ada" Berúthiel told him elegantly "we tire of them"  
Aragorn sighed and resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Yep, he'd been spoiling them alright. He cleared a space and sat down on the floor regarding them seriously. "Girls when I was your age, I did not have nearly as many toys as you have now. All I had were the hand me downs from your uncles, Elladan and Elrohir. The toys you have are all hand crafted and brand new, made especially for you. I'm worried that you're not being as grateful as you should be."

They stared up at him, their big wide eyes locked on his face.  
"So, my plan is to give you a bit of perspective." He got to his feet. "Come on. Put on something old and outdoorsy"  
Leaving them to it, he went to follow his own advice, leaving word with Faramir his steward that he would be out for the day but to send a messenger if things got urgent. He went to his girl's room and led them out to the stables, where the stable hand helped them mount their ponies. He loaded his saddle bag with a length of rope and set out across the palace estates. His daughters followed behind him, confused. Their father reined his horse in front of a big oak tree and dismounted.  
"Why are we here Daddy?" Gilraen asked him, struggling to free her foot from her stirrup.  
"I'm going to show you something that's very simple, very cheap and that gave me hours of enjoyment when I was little." He knotted a big fat knot at the end of the rope and tied the other end to the tree.  
"What is it?"  
"Seriously?" Aragorn asked. "It's a rope swing. Here..." He beckoned Berúthiel over and lifted her onto the knot.  
"Sit on the knot, wrap your legs and hold on tight."  
He gave her a gentle push. She squealed and clung tight. "It's alright sweetie. Daddy's got you. You're okay."  
He invited Gilraen over to help him push. Soon, both the girls were having a whale of a time. They played out there all afternoon, competing to see who could go the highest. Aragorn even had a go much to the girls delight. When they came home they were tired but gleeful. Aragorn also had them package up some of their toys and give them away to some of the poorer children. This was not only great for the kids there, who hardly ever got anything new but it was also a good lesson for the girls. They got to see gratitude and gratefulness in action. And they came away better for it.


End file.
